A concert review by Steve Burns:
In autumn 1974, SAILOR played the
Penthouse in Scarborough (Yorskhire, UK). The DJ, one Matt
Watkinson, had been playing the album on odd nights, and I'd been
quite impressed, so I'd bought it (he also worked at the local
record shop which helped), and persuaded a few of my friends to
come along to see this weird band who promised such an
entertaining evening. Expect the unexpected, as they say.
The Nickelodeon on the stage convinced a few that we were in for
something a bit unusual, but this was 1974, and we were a hard
audience to please. We were all "into" synthesisier
bands (Seventh Wave played a gig at the same venue a few weeks
later, to great acclaim), but rather looked down our noses at
"pop" bands. Which, it had occurred to me, this SAILOR
might well be.
When these four guys walked onstage wearing the ridiculous sailor
suits, I thought, "Lord, what's this?", and, when they
started the first song ("Let's Go to Town", of course)
and the sound failed, it looked as though it was going to be
embarrassing.
They returned to the dressing room (or whatever), waited five
minutes while somebody fixed the sound, then came back and blew
the place away. They played the album in its entirety, plus (I
think) "Panama" and (definitely) "Pimps'
Brigade". For encores, they played more or less the entire
album again. ("We don't know many songs.") At the end,
we were informed it had been the first time people had paid to
see them play - I can't say whether this was true or not.
Best wishes,
Steve
Copyright by Steve Burns
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